POLICE Chief Ronald dela Rosa said Monday the policeman involved in the alleged kidnapping of a South Korean national, SPO Ricky Sta. Isabel, had surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation on Sunday.
He also said two active policemen and a retired policeman, now a village official, had been included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s narco list and were cohorts of Sta. Isabel.
Dela Rosa said Isabel yielded to the NBI while the PNP was establishing an airtight case against him in the kidnapping of Jee Lck-joo, a Korean executive who was kidnapped in Angeles City in October last year.
Dela Rosa said Sta. Isabel’s surrendered to the NBI since he did not trust the PNP anymore.
He made the statement in the middle of a press conference in Camp Crame shortly after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre confirmed Sta Isabel’s presence at the NBI in a phone call.
Jee is still missing since his kidnapping, and even after his wife paid his kidnappers P5 million.
Dela Rosa theorized that Sta. Isabel surrendered to the NBI because he knew that the PNP had an airtight case against him.
He said the two active policemen, now in the custody of the PNP-Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, will testify against Sta Isabel.
A Korean national is also suspected of being involved in the kidnapping.
Dela Rosa said the retired policeman was a village official in Metro Manila who was in Duterte’s narco list but had already fled to Canada.
Duterte says the narco generals in his list are retired Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo, former Chief Supt. and now Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot, former NCRPO chief Director Joel Pagdilao, former QCPD director Chief Supt. Edgardo Tino, and former Western Visayas police director Chief Supt. Bernardo Diaz.
Probers are looking into allegations that Sta. Isabel’s group had been involved in extortion activities against unsuspecting victims.
The AIDG said Sta. Isabel was involved in the kidnapping of a Chinese trader in the 1990s, but he was cleared after he reportedly returned a P2- million ransom to his superiors, claiming the money was used to bribe him.